Polaris Farm,

Jonesville NC

Address: 3348 Woodruff Rd, Jonesville NC 28642 / (336) 244-0477

Farm Type:
Farmer

About Us / Polaris Farm History:

Raises Animal Welfare Approved beef cattle. \n\nBeef available for purchase direct from farm, please call or email for availability.\n\nPolaris Farm has been in Mark Hollar’s family since 1962, about the same time that he was born. In addition to cattle, which his family has always raised, in 2008 Mark began rotating sheep on the pasture his cattle had grazed to experiment with parasite reduction. Now, cattle and sheep are managed on Polaris Farm in a controlled grazing system where not only do the sheep eliminate the cattle’s parasites, but the cows do the same for the sheep. Polaris Farm animals are never confined or given hormones and live their entire lives grazing on pasture.\n\nHaving the Animal Welfare Approved certification for his Dorper and Katahdin meat sheep and Black Angus beef cattle helps Mark educate his customers about the way that ruminants should be raised. He stresses that “it doesn’t need to be done on a feedlot. People see cows standing up to their bellies in mud and skin and bones—it gives [livestock farming] a bad name. They should have the choice to purchase food that they know the origin of instead of industrial food of questionable safety and nutrition—therefore helping keep family farmers on their farms.” Educating the public about the benefits of pasture-based farming takes time, but Mark is confident that this is the right way to raise his animals.\n\nMark employs mob grazing—or what he calls adaptive grazing—in which a large number of animals are given a specific area to graze where they eat all the plants before moving so that the grazed area is allowed to rest. This practice has eliminated his need for fertilizers and contributes to the health of soil to produce more high-quality grasses. This system, which is highly dependent on weather and rainfall, is hard to do exactly right but helps to contribute to his animals excellent health and parasite resistance.\nMark runs the farm with the help of his wife, Kathy, a retired school teacher. Call or email them for information about their grassfed beef or lamb.